That's the problem, if the chainsword kill that fast how fast should a powerfist or thunderhammer kill? 1 hit kill no downed state?

Ooooh someone else from the jk franchise. It is certainly true that the devs could look at this game. using a sword never was so nice and reactive. Plus with a simple click on your bind , you could choose your "stance". You could use a fast and defensive style , a overall balanced style or a very hard hitting but heavy style. It was nice and easy to use since all you had to do to change was cycle.

In another game - warframe - they recently added stances to their own melee. e+e+e ; e wait e+e ; e [hold] e+e for exemple. it's easy to use yet it permit a bit of cycling through differents combo.

Didn't they mention that stuff like thunderhammer can't be blocked nearly as easily (if at all) as chainsword. Also the execution is bound to be cooler

that's why you need the other weapons in the game so that they can provide context for the other weapons and you can balance accordingly

Melee combat is my biggest hope and concern for EC. I am also in the Faction that doesn't want it to become who smashes one button more wins.

My only solution would be that:
Maybe the strenght of ECs melee Combat will lie in the diversity (of which we haven't seen anything so far). With diverisity I mean assymetric Faction/Weaponsbalance.

I agree with a lot of you guys here. I think there shouldn't be only a single button mashing for melee combos or strikes.

Devs: I was thinking about it and I think it would be beneficial to include a "quick strike". Most quick strikes are meant to counter, as opposed to doing lethal damage. That counter could be the difference between you getting 1 hit/KO by a heavy melee attack or being bested by another player who got the jump on you.

If you have mechanics where players can stagger after their weapons collide than would it not be prudent to implement a "quick strike"? Like a quick jab/stab. If opponents have shields than the shield should be very durable when it comes to both melee strikes and ranged fire. However, there should be an attack which is designed to break the shield stance. Either a heavy melee attack or bludgeoning foot! Just a thought.

As someone planning to almost exclusively play as a assault marine I'm hoping for a M&B:W (This imo was the first game to do multiplayer melee right, released 2 years before Chivalry it boasts almost the same mechanics) type deal with melee. I would like it to be a little more simplified though because I do have a pistol in one hand, and I only have so many buttons on my mouse (9 lol)

I think you guys keep forgetting that the game already has a good melee system, it just needs some refinement.
As for melee TTK, I'd say about 4-5 swings from a sword like weapon, 2-3 for a power based one handed weapon, 1.5-2 for two handed.

Wish it was a tad faster and have something other than the boot/block breaker. It takes too long and is really telegraphed. It was about 3-4 secs for the SM to settle down from his last attack animation, raise his boot and then complete the kick. It was from 1:55-1:57-8ish. Enough time for me to drop my block and take advantage and counterattack.

It seems like a lot of people are forgetting that these are Space Marines and their barbaric, evil brethren. Space Marines as a rule don't rely on trickery and deception, but rather brutally effective defenses and attacks designed to demolish the guard of their foes. Leave the feints and pirouettes to the fiendish Eldar.

Right now from what we've all seen in the videos the players are able to block, parry, dodge and stagger. Combine that with the ability to attack either high or low and there should be enough combinations to sate even the most hardcore of melee combatants, at least at launch. The M+KB can easily support such keybindings, and a xbox/playstation controller can as well.

That being said, what's so wrong with having combinations of attacks? Why does playing rock-paper-scissors with 20 different combinations of choices matter so much for the opening strikes? Why does it matter whether or not the two players are interrupting combos and chaining others into the desired sequence of actions or picking from a pile of button presses tied to individual actions that could be similarly countered or chained? The end result is the same. Either you reacted faster and/or chose wisely, defeating your opponent, or you reacted slower/chose poorly and your opponent defeated you.